Spring Items: Defense
Defensive line
[Bryan Fuller]
Headline news is not at all surprising: Rashan Gary is like dang. Palpable excitement from the coaches about getting to line up Gary next to Maurice Hurst and God help anyone assigned to block those guys on a stunt. Or not on a stunt. Gary remains extremely coachable and is on track to deliver on that #1 overall recruit hype. The end. Gary talk this year == Peppers talk last year. Everyone knows he's coming so it's almost beside the point to mention it.
Carlo Kemp looks set to back Gary up at strongside end:
"Rashan's a great person to definitely model your game after and follow up," Kemp said. "Especially because he goes in there, sets the tempo. For me, backing him up, I want to be as close as I can that there's no dropoff. When Rashan's in, we already know what he can do, and then when I come in I try to mimic his game a lot, so that when he's in and I'm in, it looks the exact same."
That would be nice. Kemp has impressed the coaches after a rough start that was partially because he was being played out of position at linebacker. (Remember that Michigan had a crisis at LB before the emergence of McCray last year.) Kemp on his interactions with Don Brown:
"He said when we first started spring ball 'I don't even know who this guy is anymore, last year I'd have traded him away for two used footballs' " Kemp said. "So that felt good. Last year I might have done the same thing, traded me away for two used footballs.
"Maybe we're up to three this year."
Kemp has the bloodlines and good size (265 now, probably approaching 280 by fall) so backup snaps at the anchor should be relatively productive. Early-enrolled freshman Donovan Jeter is also impressing, and right now he and Kemp are both wearing #2. Winner gets to keep it, I guess?
At the other end, Chase Winovich has added another chunk of weight as he attempts to replace Taco Charlton; hopefully this will allow him to hold up against the run while not sapping his ability to get around the corner. All weight gain or loss is good in the spring. Haven't gotten anything about the folks pushing Winovich on the depth chart so that might be a spot of worry. Jeter is probably more of a SDE/3T than a weakside end.
DT starters are established and I cannot tell you anything about them that you don't already know. Mo Hurst should be an All-American with increased playing time and the shiny stats he racks up. Everyone is waiting for Bryan Mone to finally display the potential people have chattered about for years. Chatter remains the same on Mone, and he did flash talent late in the year. If he can stay healthy dot dot dot.
Very thin on the interior with few of the freshmen on campus yet and Michael Dwumfour frequently limited with minor issues. As a result Michigan is experimenting with redshirt freshman Ron Johnson on the interior, which is very much a work in progress. Johnson arrived as a 245-pound edge rush type. I would interpret that as distress about backup DTs. Lawrence Marshall is also on the interior and has not drawn much buzz.
Depth is a concern. Starters should be bonkers.
Linebacker
[Fuller]
Mike McCray is an obvious starter and looks like you'd expect. Leader, thumper. Michigan's offense isn't of the variety that frequently tests McCray's main 2016 weakness—operating in space—so I assume you're going to get a lot of very positive reports on him that are about the stuff he was already excellent at, and we'll have to wait for live fire this fall to see if he's made progress on the downsides.
The other spot was presumed to be Devin Bush, but don't sleep on Mike Wroblewski, who keeps getting brought up by Don Brown for a reason. Wroblewski is an "A-gap player," which means he's a guy to take on fullbacks and hammer the interior run game but might be limited in sideline-to-sideline range. He's taken over some of the calls from McCray, which is quite a thing to do when you're taking them from a returning starter and fifth year senior who is presumably going to be a captain. He is on the two deep, legitimately.
Bush is also very much in the mix and will at least rotate through a la Gedeon when he was the third guy behind Morgan and Bolden. He could start, as well—he seems a much more natural fit for Michigan's forays against spread offenses.
FWIW, one report that Ben Mason "looks the part" at LB, so they are giving him his shot there and he may yet defy this site's oft-stated opinion that he's destined for fullback. Redshirt freshman Josh Uche Is "laying the wood" a lot and should get some playing time this year, possibly as a pass rush specialist, with a productive career in the offing.
The VIPER(!!!) spot is addressed in the next section because it should be.
Safety
Michigan looks set to go with a three safety look again—the defense is a bonafide 4-2-5 and we should get used to it—in a slightly different configuration than last year. This is not insider chatter but rather something the coaches have directly stated:
"We'll see in the Spring Game how those guys line up in live competition, but right now Tyree Kinnel and Josh Metellus, those guys are leaders of the pack [at safety] in my eyes," Smith said. "They've done a good job from a leadership standpoint. I think Tyree has done a good job with communication -- getting guys lined up and making checks. I feel comfortable with him in the game right now."
Tyree Kinnel is your free safety and will play the Dymonte Thomas role; Josh Metellus is the strong safety and will replace Delano Hill. Both are heady and "kind of going Jarrod Wilson," which is music to your author's ears. All hail boring safeties, with a side of Metellus thumping people in their earholes.
Meanwhile many reports have it that Khaleke Hudson is your leader at VIPER(!!!) and will seek to replicate Jabrill Peppers. Hudson was a bit slow picking up coverages per a couple people; he is physically capable of the slot coverage that Hill was so good at a year ago, and as he gets increasingly comfortable people in his vicinity have a tendency to get "jacked up," as the kids say. One report notes he's making a number of spectacular, freaky plays. As we've asserted about Hudson since he popped up on our radar, he's not Peppers but he's basically Peppers. The emergence of Metellus gives Michigan the opportunity to use him in that spacebacker spot he was born to man.
Meanwhile in news I find very important indeed, people think J'Marick Woods has a nickname but he does not.
Brian Smith says J'Marick Woods has stood out to him this spring. Says he's earned his nickname of "Woods" - is a big hitter
— Orion Sang (@orion_sang) April 11, 2017
This aggression against nicknames will not stand. That is just his name. Hockey nicknames that are "last name followed by -y" are bad enough. Come back when you've named him "Scooter" or "Booger" or "Dump Truck." Preferably all three.
Cornerback
All systems go for David Long and Lavert Hill, who have been gathering extensive praise as physical, sticky corners. Hill is currently stickier but Long isn't far off. When the projected starters are in it's been difficult for Michigan's receivers to get separation.
There is a significant dropoff after those two, with Brandon Watson and Ambry Thomas currently drawing the most mention. There's no such thing as a second unit yet, of course; those two guys are a nose ahead of the pack after the starters. Watson was meh as a slot corner a year ago and is past the age where rapid progress is likely; I assume he'll have a role similar to last year's unless he gets passed by Thomas right out of the gate. Survey says: possible.
Overall, practice insiders are positive about Michigan's ability to weather all the departures. Don Brown's said as much publicly, and privately he's saying basically the same things: there's no reason this defense shouldn't be in the same ballpark as last year's. #1 is a tough ask because of randomness and whatnot, but Don Brown has put together top end defenses without having a guy like Rashan Gary. He remains a hard-boiled cop one day from retirement in a candy store.
There are two flaws in your argument. The first is the assumption that Hoke played freshmen because he wanted to be able to say he gave freshmen a chance to play, because it helped in recruiting. You don't know that. Thomas was extremely talented and there's every possibility they believed he would contribute early. He just couldn't get past the other starters. Gedeon was similar, and was actually needed in the OSU game his freshman year, which is a real need and not a "let's play him so we can say we play freshman" reason.
The other flaw is the reliance on hindsight. As of the point Hoke (and the position coaches, as reshp1 mentions) decided to burn the redshirt, it could have appeared to everyone that they were likely contributors on the 2 deep and needed. Only the playing out of the next several years allows you to critique that decision.
If we run into yet another experience black hole that could have been filled by guys who could have used a fifth year then yeah, why not?
April 12th, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
April 12th, 2017 at 12:35 PM ^
Brown has said that they are each others backups so they pretty much interchangebale.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:31 PM ^
Don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but Michigan is going to return 9 starters on defense in 2018. That's a scary thought.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^
Without wishing away an entire year of football, I have to say I think 2018 will be a season to remember for a long time; based on roster composition.
There's a huge dead spot in the roster from that '15 class where Hoke's recruiting fell off a cliff as we stumbled to 5-7 and Harbaugh scrambled to scrape together a 14-man class.
That would be the Junior class right now - and as you run through the projected starters, it's practically empty. There's a handful of Seniors and then it pretty much jumps straight to a billion Sophomores.
We won't see this kind of massive turnover again for some time (knock on wood). That should result in fun times.
That handful of seniors was a better class (and had Peppers, who is of course gone) than Harbaugh's debut but outside of Jabrill it was hurting pretty significantly from Hoke's dropoff. So it's half of one decent class spread over two years, with the crown jewel paying off so well that he's in the pros. That's pretty rough.
And unusual, too. Can anyone else think of a major program that hired a solid coach that has gone through a dropoff like this?
April 12th, 2017 at 12:41 PM ^
Depending on what Speight does, Cole would be the only starter to graduate on offense, and Grant Newsome would return to man that spot. They will lose the fullbacks, but I'm not sure they are considered "starters."
So by my count, Michigan could return 19 starters in 2018. That's preseason #1.
Agree.
And I don't see any scenario regarding Speight that is bad--either he's so good that he leaves, which means we have a surprisingly good year this year, or he comes back, when he is a fifth year senior with loads of experience, or he gets beaten out by a really good younger QB.
Which is to say, that if he's not the starter in 2018, it's for a reason that's great for Michigan and probably for him, injury excepted.
Seeing what DB has done at schools with much less talent gives me a lot of hope for this years defense. I think it's understated how complex the D is due to all the moving parts, and more time in the system means that less experienced player will be more comfortable leaving them in a decent spot to make plays. Even though our D was dominant last year there were plenty of blown coverages that I think can be mitigated by more time in the system. Losing NFL talent counts is a big loss, but confidently knowing where to be goes a long way on D. Just like the Harbaughization of the offense is still taking shape, the same is occuring on defense.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
DANG !
Such weird cover art.
...but Friday.
It's basically a meme with a parental advisory.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:34 PM ^
So, you are saying Woods' nickname should be "Scooter Booger Dumptruck" ... or S.B.D. for short?
This needs to become an mgoblog mainstay ASAP
April 12th, 2017 at 12:34 PM ^
Will this be Wrobleski's only remaining year of eligibility?
April 12th, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^
Yes.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^
Putting together what was just said, here's the first unit....No surprises really.
DE - Gary
DT - Hurst
NT - Mone
DE - Winovich
LB - McCray
LB - Bush
Viper - Hudson
CB - Long
SS- Metellus
FS - Kinnel
CB - Hill
April 12th, 2017 at 12:41 PM ^
Yes.
That doesn't look half bad.
Why is Winovich in a different size font?
I'm so glad this bothers someone else, too.
Looks like he still needs to put on some weight.
defense. I also expect no drop off from last years unit. We may have some young guys that might make a few mistakes, but I see a lot of talent out there and as long as our DL stays healthy, I still say we are in good shape there. We have a year to get guys experience and playing next to very good players to learn from.
This defense in 2018 though...woah. With another year's development of Gary, Hudson, Long, Hill, Solomon, Ambry, etc. and backups, and then bringing in possibly Isaac Taylor-Stuart and Tyler Friday...goodness. If we aren't national championship material this year, just wait for next year!
That starting front seven looks pretty darn good; the defensive backfield, however, is pretty darn scary.
IF that very inexperienced, young defensive backfield can just be "okay", UM should field a very good defense again this season. Big IF.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:38 PM ^
I'm excited for the spring game but please don't hurt anyone, Khaleke.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:42 PM ^
Except the psyche of Chris Ash.
I think we can unfurl the Mission Accomplished banner for that one.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:39 PM ^
now after reading that nobody is reall challenging Winovich for the spot. I really thought 1 of Jones, CMH could have atleast been in the conversation..........Sounds like its up to a couple guys named Luiji & Kwity /s
April 12th, 2017 at 12:41 PM ^
My guess is that Malone-Hatcher will be redshirting this year.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:42 PM ^
Based on injury recovery?
Based on being behind several other guys.
I don't see why Kemp can't play back-up snaps at WDE. Seems the right size and a good complement for Winovich on more run-oriented plays. It's likely Gary plays quite a bit, so I'd imagine he could play back-up snaps on both sides. Makes sense in spring to focus on getting good at one position first.
He probably gets snaps there now...but you've got freshman coming who are built for the position long-term.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:47 PM ^
It's a good problem that we're not pining for a TF to come in and start immediately, but that if they do come in and win jobs it'll be because they beat out a starter.
That said, besides Solomon stepping in to provide depth at DT/NT, where else are freshmen expected to play right away? Or at least, where are non early enrollees expected to make a splash?
Brad Robbins at punter, Chuck Filiaga at one of the tackle spots (probably RT, IMO), Luiji Vilain at WDE, and James Hudson at DT. Those are probably the four most likely guys to play of the non-early enrollees.
He is responding to a question containing the phrase "besides Solomon"
Either it is just the fact that or the original question was "Beside Solomon......,"
Given the silence about guys behind Winovich, Vilain seems to have a tremendous chance to contribute right away.
I really wish Solomon and/or Hudson could have enrolled early. Those guys look like they could be "special" and it would have been nice to see them get that extra time to get ready for the college game.
I'm still kind of surprised that OSU didn't pursue Hudson, his senior film looked almost as good as Solomon's IMO.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:55 PM ^
I imagine James Hudson also will have some role as a depth player on the DL, people seem really excited about him. I also can't imagine all three of Singleton, Anthony, and Ross not having a role with the seemingly lack of depth at linebacker aside from the three mentioned. Thomas will also play if I had to guess.
April 12th, 2017 at 12:55 PM ^
I figured he'd be in the mix at LB since he played some last year. Has he been hurt?
Furbush has been playing SAM when they run a 4-3.
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